One year ago in January, my subscription lapsed, and i didn’t renew it. I subscribed again a few days ago, in a new rush of motivation.
Amazingly enough, I only have about 200 reviews waiting right now. My success rates are abysmal, though, hovering at about 50%… I hope I’ll get back to speed quickly, but I’ll admit I’m a bit ashamed of all of those burned items I’ve probably forgotten and that I’ll have to relearn the hard way… I don’t have the courage to go back a few levels.
Anyway, this was to motivate myself through public self-shaming. Anyone else getting back to WK after a long time? How is it going? For those to whom it has happened in the past, how has it gone? Any tips?
Welcome back!! I just came back a month ago after a year! I reset to level 1 (only from level 3), but I am learning way more this time around. I have a much better grasp of what it takes to use WK and I’m utilizing a lot more language resources this time around. Things are going better! However, I can’t relate about coming back and having a ton a reviews though I don’t think I’d have the courage to reset levels either, but I hear a lot of people suggest just resetting a few levels down to where you know you know the material. The self-study quiz user script can be really great to test yourself (not that you don’t already have a lot on your plate!)
I’ve lapsed since about July last year. Unlike you, I came back to about 200 lessons and 1600 reviews, so I’ve reset back to 1. The third time I’ve reset. My WaniKani Time Machine graph is something to behold, haha.
I took a few months off and had 900 reviews! I reset back a few levels and it’s much easier. Probably be quicker too instead of trying to go through all those reviews.
This is where my review queue current stands, just shy of 1,600. And that’s with having fallen out of the daily routine for only 6 weeks due to… well, life.
Resetting to level 1 seems extreme. I’d be reluctant to go that far. At the same time, 1,600 reviews feels impossible to overcome, which makes getting started again a struggle. Ugh. Maybe a hard reset is needed, but I was getting pretty burned out by all the SRS, and feel like grammar should be my main focus in 2022.
If anyone has tips or pointers, I’d love to hear from you.
I’ve recovered from both large review and lesson backlogs in the past and honestly each time I have, I’ve wished that I simply reset instead - my study log tells the story fairly well, haha. It was level 19 I reset from the other day and I think of the time it takes to get from 1 to 18 - about four months - verses the waves of return reviews that come from forcing through a high number of reviews over a short period, it definitely feels worth it.
General rule of thumb is this; do a bunch of the reviews you have (be it 20 or 200) and see what your percentage of right answers looks like at the end. That usually gives you a clear indication of whether you could do with resetting.
I absolutely agree with you, Joeni. At level 27, I also had to reset to level 1, because the reviews piled up enormously and my success rates were really low. It made me feel bad and discouraged… But I don’t regret it. Many “new” kanji that appear in my lessons now look only somewhat familiar, so it was a great decision.
I think the retained familiarity with some of the items is one of the overlooked benefits of resetting. If you’re feeling burned out and feel sad about low accuracy, going through those levels with the added support of your prior learnings means that you get a boost to your confidence.
welcome back. have you considered resetting a few levels or even restarting?
at 70% accuracy, you’ll just see your workload increase and it’s defo a sign your retention has taken a hit.
you could do a quick browse of the levels 'items using wkstats wkstats
just scroll down those item lists from your current level towards the early levels
Yeah, I’m fully aware that once I hit level 28, the furthest I’ve gone before, I’ll be entirely on fresh stuff and that feeling of remembering stuff will be long gone
I came back after a 3-month WK break, but I never stoped learning Japanese so coming back wasn’t (isn’t) that hard. I had the very good idea to go on vacation mode so no huge review pile to tackle either ^^
I did notice I didn’t remember the last kanji/vocab I was studying before going on a break so I waited to remember them before doing any new lesson! I guess after coming back you need time to remember everything/get used to WK again before moving forward
Thanks! Resets do seem quite scary. I’ve just found a nifty feature of the mobile app i’m using for WK (Flaming Durtles) that might just spare me one. For those who use it, try the ‘self-study quiz’ in the menu. It’s way more powerful than the add-on, as it lets you choose what levels to train and filter by JLPT level, etc.
What i’m doing is reviewing level per level, starting at level 1. I start every level with the ‘no JLPT level items’, e.g. mostly the radicals. Then i’ll do the N5 ones, then N4, etc. until i’ve done every item in the level. I find that even one year after, this ‘refresher’ works rather very well, and i recommend it. I’ve relearned quite a lot of earlier words after only one day of doing this, without having to reset.
Wow, super cool! Going to check out flaming durtles now lol. Glad there’s a way to remedy that issue, I hear a lot of people have retention issues after taking a step back and struggle even on some of the basic levels.
I understand what you’re saying here. I think the thing that’s holding me back from tackling my review pile is the thought of all the return reviews. 1,500+ reviews will be painful, and likely unproductive in the long run. My accuracy going down was part of what lead me to feeling a little burnt out to begin with. Maybe a complete reset is the best option for me, daunting as that may be.
I don’t think I’d have the courage to reset levels either, but I hear a lot of people suggest just resetting a few levels down to where you know you know the material. The self-study quiz user script can be really great to test yourself (not that you don’t already have a lot on your plate!) 
